Albee Layer’s Biggest Career Regrets, Getting Sober, And The Heaviest Wave On Earth | StabMic Ep. 38

“I want to catch the best fucking wave ever ridden.”

“The biggest, heaviest wave ever paddled. I want to get barrelled on it, come out, and have there be absolutely no fucking argument. That was the best wave anyone’s ever caught.”

Feeling a little parched? Fancy a refreshment? 

Well, I’d advise against asking a professional athlete for their hot takes on any given topic. Typically, you’ll get an answer that’s done a few laps of the PR department before escaping the skull.

Ask Albee Layer a question, though, and you’ll get an answer with all the nuance of a brick through a glass window.

On this episode of StabMic, we get a more self-reflective Albee than we’ve seen in the past. The usual hot takes and verbal haymakers haven’t gone anywhere, but there’s another layer of maturity to the conversation.

He’s conscious of how he’s been perceived in the past, doing the work on himself through therapy, and developing a clearer picture of what he wants out of surfing and life. He’s also refreshingly forthcoming about the less glamorous biz of getting there: sobriety, self-belief, self-respect and the ongoing shitfight that is learning to be content with yourself.

Following the conversation with Albee, we hear from Dakota Walters, Surf100 big-cheese winner and one half of the brother duo behind Duality, Ocean & Earth’s new feature-length film.

Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Patagonia, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Goodles, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.